In feathering paddle-wheels



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEIVIS T. HOIVARD, OF SHITHS MILLS, MISSISSIPPI.

IMPROVEMENT1N FEATHERING PADDLE-WHEELS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 16,559, dated February 10, 1857.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, LEWIS T. IIO WARD, of Smiths Mills, in the county of Carroll and State of Mississippi, have invented an Improvementin Paddle-WVheels; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification.

Figure 1' is an outside end view of my improved propelling-wheel, together with a side view of the timbers of a vessel which support said wheel; Fig. 2, an inside view of said wheel, tggether with a view of its inner supporting-timbers; Fig. 3, a top view of said wheel and its supporting-timbers; and Fig. 4, a side View of the stationary governing-wheel E, with which the movements of the paddlewheel are so combined as to retain the sides of all the paddles in vertical positions.

Similar letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The paddlesi-i of the said propelling-wheel are secured in any proper manner to the paddle-shafts mm, and the said paddle-shafts are combined with the supporting-wheels F G in such a manner that they can be freely rotated in suitable bearing-boxes. Grooved rollers 11 are placed upon the wrists of the cranks of the paddle-shafts m m, which rollers surround and embrace the periphery of the governingwheel E, and the outer extremity of the said crank-wrists are all connected with each other by means of the flat bars k 1:. The crankarms of the paddle-shafts m m being in line with the sides of the paddles and the governing-wheel E being secured in such a position as to bring its axis vertically over the axis of the shaft H of the paddle-wheel, it will be perceived that the sides of all the paddles must at all times be retained in vertical positions.

To prevent the barrels of the grooved pulleys Z Z from coming'in contact with the entire peripheryof the governing-wheelE, and thereby producing a saving of friction, the upper and lower portions of the periphery of said governing-wheel may be slightly flattened, as shown in Fig. at; but when the said governingwheel is thus shaped the flanges of the grooved rollers ZZ should be of sufficient length to embrace every portion of the periphery of said wheel. It will thus be perceived that this manner of constructing propelling paddlewheels enables the crank-arms of the paddleshat'ts to be of a much greater length than they can be made when the governing-wheel E is so combined with the other parts of the paddle-wheel that it must rotate therewith and its weight be supported by the shaft of said wheel. The other advantages of my improved paddle-wheel over all others heretofore constructed are too apparent to require pointing out.

' What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

Connecting the cranks of the paddle-shafts with each other around and with the stationary governing-wheel E by means of the connecting-bars 7t 7t; and the grooved rollers ll or their equivalents, substantially as herein set forth.

The above specification of my new and useful improvement in propelling paddle-wheels for steamboats signed and witnessed this 5th day of January, 1857.

LEWIS T. HOWARD. Witnesses:

GEORGE W. ADAMS, Z. O. ROBBINS. 

